What did Remainers expect would happen when they made EU-sceptic Jeremy Corbyn Labour leader?

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An EU flag waves as Jeremy Corbyn delivers his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in BrightoCredit:
Toby Melville/REUTERS

It’s a widely accepted belief that when Jeremy Corbyn stood for the leadership of his party in 2015, he neither expected nor hoped to win. Never having been ambitious himself, he had failed to nurture even the most rudimentary leadership skills, and his public speaking abilities were – and remain – stilted, clichéd and ineffective.

A key part of a person’s leadership abilities is his willingness to contradict or challenge an audience, to call its members out on one issue or another, to tell them they’re wrong about something and explain why they need to change. Tony Blair frequently did this – the term “counter-intuitive” is probably the most New Labour of all New Labour phrases.